With the month of June approaching…

…we’re almost halfway through 2021!

That in itself can be used as the basis for a marketing promotion…

…along with the other holidays and events that fall in the coming month…

…to create your own marketing calendar for June 2021.

If you’re in the northern hemisphere…

…the broad theme can be thought of as “Summer”.

The Summer Solstice occurs at 03.32 UT on June 21 (in the UK that’s 04.32 BST on June 21).

There’s also Father’s Day (Sunday, June 20) in the USA, UK and Canada.

Other events… [Read more…]

Welcome to this month’s “Looking Ahead” feature…taking a look at the events, occasions and anniversaries in the month of May 2021 that smart marketers can use as the reason for a marketing promotion.

In May 2021…

…two notable occasions are…

…firstly “May Day” (May 1, of course)…

…and then in most places (apart from the UK) “Mother’s Day”, which this year falls on Sunday May 9.

“May Day” (May 1) is an occasion widely observed in the northern hemisphere and originally was a pagan festival linked to Spring and fertility.

Wikipedia has more about May Day traditions…

…including in the UK the May Pole, the May Queen and Morris Dancing.

Like many originally pagan festivals, May Day has been co-opted by the Church and in many Catholic countries May is a month honouring the Virgin Mary.

In the modern era, May Day has also come to be known as “International Workers’ Day” and associated with the labour movement.

Also in May…

…we have “Be A Millionaire Day” on May 20! This is a day to think and dream about what it would be like to be a millionaire.

It’s understood that the term “millionaire” was first used in the English language by Lord Byron in a letter written in 1816. At the time, there were only a handful of millionaires. Today it’s reckoned there are more than 13 million millionaires scattered around the globe. The origins of “Be a Millionaire Day” are not clear, but the day honours the desire to enjoy the freedom and power associated with being financially secure.

Here’s a more detailed list of events… [Read more…]

Welcome to our regular look at the month ahead, April 2021…

…and the events, holidays and anniversaries that a smart marketer can use as the foundation for an event-driven campaign or marketing promotion.

Easter is the main holiday and this year falls between the 2nd (Good Friday)…

…and the 5th (Easter Monday).

The other prominent event of general interest this month is…

…”April Fool’s Day” (a day for practical jokes and spreading hoaxes) on the first of the month.

It’s also “Shakespeare Day” on April 23 which is also “English Language Day” and “World Book and Copyright Day”.

Other events of note… [Read more…]

Time to look ahead at the month of March 2021 at the events, anniversaries and holidays that we can use to build a marketing calendar for campaigns, product launches or promotions.

The main occasion of general interest is St Patrick’s Day on March 17. Plenty of scope for ideas based around luck, good fortune and finding that elusive “pot of gold” at the end of the rainbow.

There is also the change of season with the March Equinox (March 20 at 09.37 UT). Daylight Savings Time changes this month as well in many countries.

In the UK it’s “Mother’s Day” on Sunday, March 14…

…and Easter is approaching. This year it falls on April 2 – 5.

Moving on to other events… [Read more…]

You’ll often find in the corporate world, a simple concept will end up being complicated almost to the point of absurdity. The great Tom Fishburne  takes a look at one such example in…

“creating personas”. 

Personas…or “Customer Avatars”…are widely used in marketing. Put simply, they are a picture or profile of a typical client or customer. 

“Marketers use personas as a tool to try to bring customers into the room — to help organizations be more customer-centric. They’re intended to help with everything from innovation to experience design to marketing and sales.”

When writing sales copy, the aim is to write as if one-to-one. Having a specific, representative person in mind can be helpful to achieve that.

But, of course, these tools have their limitations.  For a start, how do you decide on a typical customer? And…

“At their best, personas can help visualize and communicate insights from research. But at their worst, they have nothing to do with the real world, let alone real people. Personas also often say more about the team that created them than about the customers or users they’re supposed to represent.”

As Tom Fishburne points out in his delightful cartoon at the top of this post.

All too often, what starts out as a useful tool…ends up taking on a life of its own…and becoming less useful.

The suggested answer to this issue is… [Read more…]